The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-22
SIRENS IN THE SURF.
SCENES AT BATHING HOURS AT
NEWPORT.

English Footman as an Obstruction
to Love-Making- Striking Figure of
Tremendous Girl
Newport Letter in Ne,c York Times
The bay is a great shining horseshoe.
There is cottage on the far low headland
on the left; cottage on the far low head
land on the right Beyond is the open
ocean. In the very centre of the arch is
Newport's bathing beach.
The Beach Casino is long, low wooden
building, two-storied only in the centre, Its
roof is of gray shingles, its sides of yellow.
All along its front, massed on the 200 feet
of sand between its veranda and the water,
is a dense black throng of vehicles.
The morning is warm and the bright. sun
light is glinting on the panels and wheels
of victorias with rumbles, and victorias
without, on char a-banes, dog-carts.
T-carts, t>daus, landaulets, clarences,
coupes, broughams village-carts, buggies,
and dukes-dukeS are the latest two-wheel-
ed fad-in u confused and heterogeneous
mass of shining wood and leather, with here
and there a tally-ho rising bulkily
over all Tigers are moro plenteous
and more gaudy than in a Bengal jungle.
The vehicles are filled and the We
randa is crowded Men in straw hats and
white flannel are bending over carriage
wheels to pass the compliments of the hour
with their lady friends The women are
chatty and smiling, and gracious. They
are in fresh, simple dress, simple in that
they cost S. to buy and $50 to make. New
port, in fact, is out for the bathing hour,
and all of Newport which does not battle
joins heartily to make life miserable for
those who do.
l, 1. l. ~ zyn II
you are wise you will not go near the beach
before that hour. If you do you will strike
the antiques. The antiques are queer col
lection of old ladies who come from nobody
knows where. II the discovery of their
origin depends upon the public interest in
them. it win never be brought about They
wear bathing suits consisting of a horrible
straw hat, a coat and knee-breeches These
are made from bedticking, a faded sofa
cover, an old crazy quilt, or anything else
that has no particular value. They look
like Indian squaws on pilgrimage. They
wear no stockings Uglyl They are the
ugliest things in the whole realm of zoology.
Sin is tinted Venus in comparison. If
one of them should come within the
luminous circle of an electric light at night
the light would fare up wildly and then go
out
They disappear, however, like the witches
in the spectacle before the fairies come on.
The fairies represent Viewpoints best circles,
for, despite the supposition to the contrary;
bathing is very generally INDUCED in.
Still, the crowd in the ocean is remarkably
mixed. Two-thirds of it represent the
middle class and the distinguished feature
of this class is that it's women do not wear
stockings. The difference between Nara
gansett and Newport in this respect is re-
markable. At the former place no woman
appears without them. Their absence
at the latter place is unpleasant A
stockinged limb is coquettish. A bare
one, except on occasions, is
ugly, if not questionable Modern footgear
has not improved the symmetry of the
female toes, and however slrillful the
chiropodist may be he is sure to leave some
signs of his art. If an Athenian sculptor
were to-day to seek in this country for
model for female foot he would be as badly
off as Diogenes. 1t would seem as if all
female bathers would strongly prefer to
cover their distorted extremities. Those of
their sex who make of their beauty a study
invariably do. The stocking, in case Of dire
necessity would probably be the very last
garment discarded by them, and some
women, who would blush at nothing else,
would redden at the exposure of their feet
While the fairies in their pretty suits are
demurely bobbing up and down in the
breakers, the girls of the middle class are
doing whatever their sweet wills suggest
Down the beach, for instance, far back to-
ward the line of hillocbs, are two girls in
bathing suits, one of gray and the other of
blue They have buried themselves in the
sand up to their waists. They look as if
they were growing there. By them stands
q smart dog-cart, with a gray horse in
silver-mounted harness. In the cart are
two finely-dressed young men. The girls
are pretty, but have common faces The
men are not totally at variance with them
In this respect, though there is a coat-of-
arms on the panel. Perhaps the coat is not
q very good fit.
The girls look like twin sphiuxes-frivo-
lors daughters of that great poem in stone
in Egylt's sands Retzch compared hui
manity to the Sphinx, saying that while its
soul was i'll the clouds, its body was buried
in the earth. He had no direct reference to
the young ladies, however Their souls, in
aerial mounting, have stopped and gotten
into the cart. One of them smiles archly at
the driver. She is not immodest She is 40
more culpable in her dress than the blue
laws OF the Purit lnica, prohibition State
freely permit And yet under those very
laws she bends her knee, the sand parts over
her right limb, and from knee cap to toe it
is exposed and lies nude and round and white
upon the sand. 1t does not shine 1t glares,
and she knows it. Some Young girls walk
ing by look at her and blush. 1t is no won
der
The Irritation en- deshabiHe progresses.
Finally the driver makes his friend get out,
puts his English ulster upon her, and takes
her for a rafting ride up and down the
beach along the edge of the water. He
keeps far below the crowd, however. His
friend sits down by the other Sphinx and
eleverly enchains her admiration by peri
Ddically pouring sand down the back of her
neck
The beach is little trying for the nice
young ladies. 1t is shallow, and one has to
walk long distance from the breakers to
the water line. Then there is another long
walk from the water line to the bath house.
When, as is usually the case, one has TO pass
In and out among throng of carriages
hlled with staring strangers the ordeal is Sc
we're for shrinking modesty. Some, fearful
of it, pass to and fro up the beach beyond
the line. Others do not appear to
mind, and join conversations with
friends in carriages as they pass in
with artless Inconsistencies. 1t is
merely a question of experience, also, if
cynicism be permitted, of figure. One
would not expect, for instance, that osseous
old maiden, who has put on scarlet suit TO
decrease her resemblance to an imaginary
line, to be as ready TO chat with her gentle
man friends in her present state of candor
as the plump little champion whom she is
foolish TO walk beside. Contrasts are elo-
guent, and bathing suits are as frank as
Fairbanks in t.lli,,oy "a